Among Christians an oath is a solemn appeal for the truth of our assertions, the sincerity of our promises, and the fidelity of our engagements, to the one only God, the Judge of the whole earth, who is everywhere present, and sees and hears and knows whatever is said or done or thought in any part of the world. Such is the Being whom Christians, when they take an oath, invoke to bear testimony to the truth of their words and the integrity of their hearts. Surely, then, if oaths be a matter of so much moment, it well be- hooves us not to treat them with levitj-, nor ever to take them without due consideration. Hence we ought, with the utmost vigilance, to abstain from mingling oaths in our ordinary discourse, and from as- sociating the name of God with low or disgusting images, or using it on trivial occasions, as not only a profane levity in itself, but tending to destroy that reverence for the Supreme Majesty which ought to prevail in society and to dwell in our own hearts. Perhaps all excesses in this case are caused by the extravagant, profuse, and wasteful use of oaths among us, so utterly at variance with the command, " Swear not at all," making the oath so powerless for good and so potent for evil.
To develop clearly the use of oaths in early and mod- ern times, we will here briefly notice the purposes for which and the occasions on which they have been taken, their different forms and ceremonies, the various punishments for their violation, the theory w'hich justi- fies and requires their adoption as a sanction for truth, and their real force and efficiency in the administration of judicial affairs. (We rely mainly on Appleton's /^(<fe of Evidence Stated and Discussed [Phila. 1860, 8voJ, ch. xvi).
For the usages among the Jews, see the preceding article.
Perjury, by the IVIosaic law, was an offence against the civil law; to God alone was left its punishment. The civil magistrate had no jurisdiction of the offence
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charged, except in the case of a false charge of crime, ■when punislimeiit was to be iiiHicted upon the per- son falsely charging it. The perjurer might expiate his guilt by making the prescribed and predetermined trespass offerings. The misunderstanding or misinter- pretation of this may in later times have led to the Romish doctrines of absolution and the sale of in- dulgences; for it is difhcult to perceive much differ- ence in principle whether the offerings made to escape the punishment of the Deity be in certain specific ar- ticles or in certain money payments.
The form of swearing among the (Jreeks was by lift- ing up the hand to heaven or touching the altar, add- ing a solemn imprecation to their oaths, for the satis- faction of the person by whom the oath was imposed, as well as to lay a more inviolable obligation upon the person taking it — in terms something like this: If what I swear be true, may I enjoy much happiness; if not, may I utterly perish. In ju(licial proceedings the oath was administered to the witness before an altar erect- ed in the courts of judicature, and with the greatest solemnity. The parties were likewise sworn — the plaintiff that he would make no false charge, the de- fendant that he would answer truly to the charge pre- ferred.
An ancient form among the Romans was for the juror to hold a stone in his hand, and imprecate a curse upon himself should he swear falsely, in these words : " If I knowingly deceive, while he saves the city and citadel, may Jupiter cast me away from all that is good, as I do this stone." Among the Greeks and Romans, the oath was not merely used to induce faith in judicial proceedings, but the gods were invoked as witnesses to contracts between individuals and treaties between na- tions.
When the shrine of Jupiter gave place to that of St. Peter; when the innumerable gods and goddesses of an- cient superstition were converted into the equally num- berless saints and saintesses of Catholicism ; when the Pontifex Maximus of consular and imperial, became the Pontifex Maximus of papal Rome, without even the change of his sacerdotal vestments; when the rites and ceremonies — the whole ritual of the pagan worship — were transferrcil bodily to the worship of the papacy, the oath, which was essentially a religious ceremony, was adopted as it had heretofore been administered, except so far as was required by the alteration in the name of the object of worship, and in its purposes and its be- liefs. As before this change the altar, or the sacred things upon it, were touched or kissed, as the more gods one swore by the stronger the oath, so we find after this change similar forms and ceremonies were adopted, with slight variations. The very form of the impreca- tion used is of pagan origin. " .So help me Jupiter and these sacred things" became "So help ine Clod and these sacred relics," or " these holy Evangelists." The flamen of Jupiter, from the sacredness of his office, was not compelled to take an oath, and the word of the priest, " verbum sacerdotis," in conformity with the old superstition, has sufficed. Justinian prescribes the fol- lowing form: "I swear by (lod Almighty, and by his only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Ghost and by the glorious St. iMary, mother of (iod, and always a virgin, and by the four Gospels which I hold in my hand, and by the holy archangels Michael and Gabriel," etc., closing with an imprecation upon his liead of the terrible judgment of (Jod and Christ, our Savioir, and that he might have part with .Judas and ih(^ leper Gehazi, and that the curse of Cain might be upon him. Besides oaths on solemn and judicial occasions, the an- cients were in the habit of making use of them, as now- adays, as the "supplemental ornament of speech" — "as exjiletives to plump the speech, and fill up sen- tences;" swearing by the |iatron divinities of their cities, as in later days by patron saints; by all manner of beasts and creeping things, by the fishes of the sea, and by stones and mountains.